In the ever-evolving landscape of intellectual property and antitrust regulations, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a new Policy Statement on Patent Listing on September 14, 2023. This statement carries far-reaching implications for patent holders, competitors, and consumers alike. In this blog post, we will delve into the key aspects of the FTC’s Patent Listing … Continue reading
On November 23, 2022, the US Patent and Trademark Office and the US Copyright Office issued a request for public comment on the subject of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and intellectual property rights. Comments are due by Monday, January 9, 2023. In addition, the Offices will offer three public roundtables: one panel on NFTs and patents … Continue reading
We are now almost one year on from Mark Zuckerberg’s much talked-about October 2021 letter announcing, among other things, the change of the name of his company from Facebook to Meta, reflecting the company’s commitment to revolutionising social connection through virtual reality. Zuckerberg’s expansive vision of a metaverse currently remains more of a fantasy than … Continue reading
On 7 March 2022 a decree of the Russian government took effect, announcing that compensation need not be paid for the unauthorised use of Russian patents, utility models and designs to rights holders connected with foreign countries committing “unfriendly acts” against Russian legal entities and individuals. In the case of patents, the citizenship of the … Continue reading
Design patents, sometimes referred to as industrial designs, protect the aesthetic appearance of a product. As with other registered IP rights, the protection offered is, generally speaking, territorial in scope. In other words, unless international or regional treaties are available, a grant of design rights has to be obtained individually in each country of interest. … Continue reading
Under the PRC Patent Law, the offering for sale of an infringing product constitutes an act of infringement, regardless of whether the product is actually sold or not. However, there are divergent views as to what damages arise merely from such offering (without any actual sale). According to one school of thought, the patentee does … Continue reading
As an old Chinese proverb goes, “what one loses on the swings, he gets back on the roundabouts.” This is exactly what happened to Jaguar Land Rover in its claim against Land Wind (Jiangling Motors) in China for copying of Jaguar Land Rover’s car design. Background After their patent battle from 2014 to 2019, the … Continue reading
This week the Federal Circuit rejected a constitutional challenge to the Secretary of Commerce’s appointment of administrative judges to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). The decision comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in June in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, which stated … Continue reading
On 5 July 2021, the Government released its Discussion Paper setting out the Government’s proposal and seeking views from key stakeholders. The paper will be open for submissions until 16 August 2021. Now is the opportunity for stakeholders to put forward their suggestions as to what a patent box in Australia should entail. Patent boxes … Continue reading
In the last decade there has been an exponential increase in the amount of patent filing originating from China, which, according to a recently published USPTO report, can be attributed to certain non-market factors including subsidies and targets set by various governmental authorities in China. Coincidently, or perhaps not coincidentally, the China National Intellectual Property … Continue reading
2020 was a year of change and challenge. This holds true not only for the way we live and work, but also in relation to the patent laws and practices in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). In the last year, a number of significant amendments affecting various aspects of patent prosecution and enforcement were … Continue reading
Patent Law Reform We discussed the second draft of proposed amendments to the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) Patent Law in our previous blog post here. Since then, on 17 October 2020 the PRC National People’s Congress (“NPC”) approved most of the amendments, though the law as passed is different from the draft in two … Continue reading
On 3rd July 2020, the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the People’s Republic of China released a second draft of proposed amendments to the PRC Patent Law for public consultation. In response to opinions from various government authorities and experts, the second draft incorporates several important changes of note: Partial design protection The draft includes … Continue reading
In its decision dated 12 December 2019, the Higher Regional Court Munich ruled that in principle, an interim injunction for patent infringement should not be ordered unless it can be satisfied that the validity of the patent-in-suit is ensured, for example where the patent is shown to have “survived” contested proceedings on validity (Higher Regional … Continue reading
Intellectual Property (IP) Australia published their 2020 edition of the Australian IP Report (the IP Report) on 24 April 2020. The IP Report, which can be accessed here, provides a current overview of the IP sector in Australia and the latest data on the IP rights (IPR) administered by IP Australia. Reports such as the … Continue reading
In the recent decision, Fluid Energy Group Ltd v Exaltexx Inc, 2020 FC 81, the Canadian Federal Court granted an interlocutory injunction prohibiting a plaintiff patent holder in a patent infringement action from sending cease and desist letters to suppliers associated or involved with the defendant alleged infringer. This decision builds upon other recent Canadian … Continue reading
Please see our updated version of this article, published July 10, 2020. An Update on the Response from Canadian Courts to COVID-19 We are now more than a month in to social distancing measures, and it is time for an update on the status of the courts across Canada. As with the rest of us, … Continue reading
On January 27, 2020, the European Patent Office (EPO) published the reasons for its decisions to reject two European patent applications[1] under which an artificial intelligence system, named “DABUS”, had been designated as the inventor. The applications[2] concerned two inventions created without human intervention: a beverage container based on fractal geometry and a device based on flickering … Continue reading
Please see our updated version of this article, published July 10, 2020. We know you have a lot to think about and plan right now and over the next few weeks. You can rely on us to keep your intellectual property litigation matters moving forward. To that end, we wanted to provide an update on … Continue reading
Given the many challenges faced by all businesses in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has advised that it will relax filing deadlines for the remainder of March 2020. This decision was first announced on March 16, 2020 and further updated yesterday, March 19, 2020. What you need to know All … Continue reading
Overview The patentability of computer implemented inventions (CII) has long been a contentious topic in Australian patent law. A few months ago, we wrote about Justice Robertson’s decision in Rokt Pte Ltd v Commissioner of Patents, which overturned the Australian Patent Office’s rejection of a patent application for a CII relating to a digital advertising … Continue reading